inveterate enemy, and obliged him to take refuge from his persecution in the retired fastnesses of the wood of Aharla, which lies between the Gailte mountain and Tipperary. In this concealment, he wrote his history, not for the lucre of gain, but for the benefit of his countrymen.

His esteem for the Irish language is described in the following lines, written by him in that language, but translated by O'Connor.

The Irish language is completely sweet;
In aid of it no foreign e'er did meet.
A copious, free, keen, and extending voice,
And mellifluent, brief; for mirth most choice.
Although the Hebrew language be the first,
And that, for learning, Latin be the best,
Yet still, from them, the Irish ne'er was found,
One word to borrow, to make its proper sound.

He died in the year 1644-at least that is the date of the inscription to his memory, in raised letters, over the door of the church at Tybrud.

I find so many incredible legends in his history, that I cannot imagine why he should have been at the trouble of detailing them; but in those early times many people believed in superstitious dreams and visions, which at present would not be listened to. They still prevail among the lower Irish, many of whose legends are taken from ancient mythology; and from almost all a good moral may be deduced. I shall give you some of these from Keating's narra-` tive, to enliven my letters for your children; but shall first give a few extracts from his own preface, in which it may be seen that he actually believed all that he found in the ancient records.

In giving his reasons for writing his history, Keating says, 'I am a person of an advanced age, and

have acquired a more valuable experience, by understanding the public chronicles and ancient authors in their original language, than they (being of other countries, of minor years, and not having time to digest, or capacity to understand the ancient records) could possibly arrive at. It is not from a principle of love or aversion, nor that I am moved by the importunity of friends, or the strong influence of rewards, that I undertook to write the following history of Ireland, but was urged on by reflecting that so noble a country as the kingdom of Ireland, and so worthy and generous a people who possessed it, ought not to be abused by fabulous relations, or have their memories buried in oblivion, without being transmitted, and the antiquity and names of the inhabitants recorded with honour to posterity: and I humbly conceive that my history should the rather take place, because I trace the antiquity of the Irish much higher, and with better authority than other writers, and give a particular account of the most ancient Irish, the Gadelians: and if any one should suppose that I bestow too large encomiums upon that brave and illustrious tribe, or speak with partiality of their exploits, let it be considered that I have no temptation to be unjust, being myself originally of English extraction.

'I have observed, that every modern historian, who has undertaken to write of Ireland, commends the country, but despises the people; which so far raised my resentment and indignation, that I set out in this untrodden path, and resolved to vindicate so brave a people from such scandalous abuses, by searching into original records, and from thence compiling a true and impartial history.

"It grieved me to see a nation hunted down by ignorance and malice, and recorded as the scum and refuse of mankind, when upon a strict inquiry they have made as good a figure, and have signalized themselves in as commendable a manner to posterity, as any people in Europe. The valour and unshaken bravery of the old Irish, and particularly their fixed constancy in the Christian religion, and the Catholic faith, ought to be honourably mentioned, as a proper standard and example for ages that follow. All histories allow that Ireland was the established seat of learning, that annually afforded numbers of professors, who were sent to cultivate and improve the neighbouring nations of France, Italy, Germany, Flanders, England, and Scotland.

'If it be objected, that the chronicles of Ireland are liable to suspicion, and may be justly questioned; let it be observed in reply, that no people in the world took more care to preserve the authority of their public records, and to deliver them uncorrupt to Tara, in the presence of the nobility and clergy, and in a full assembly of the most learned and eminent antiquaries in the country.

'The treatises that are to be seen at this day in the Irish language, contain particular relations of all the memorable battles and transactions that happened in Ireland from the first account of time, and gives an account of the genealogies of the principal families in the island; and the authority of these public records cannot be questioned, when it is considered that there were above two hundred chroniclers and antiquaries, whose business was to preserve and record all actions and affairs of consequence relating to the public; they had revenues and salaries settled

upon them for their maintenance, and to support the dignity of their character; their annals and histories were submitted to the examinations and censure of the nobility, clergy, and gentry, who were most eminent for learning, and assembled for that very purpose; which is evidence sufficient to evince their authority, and to procure them, upon the account of what has been mentioned, a superior esteem to the antiquities of any other nation, except the Jewish, throughout the world.

'The chronicles of Ireland receive an additional value from this consideration, that they were never suppressed by the tyranny and invasion of any foreign power; for though the Danes occasioned great troubles in the kingdom of Ireland for many ages, yet the number of these public registerers, whose office was to enter upon record the affairs of the kingdom, were so many that the Danes could not possibly destroy them all, though it must be confessed that some of the chronicles of those times perished. No other country in Europe, that I know of, can justly boast of the same advantage; for though the Romans, the Gauls, the Goths, Saxons, Saracens, Moors, and Danes generally were careful to suppress the public records in their respective incursions, yet it was impossible that the antiquities of Ireland should be involved in the same fate, because copies of them were lodged in so many hands, and there were so many antiquaries to take care of them.

'The Irish were furnished with a learned body of men, called druids or soothsayers, whose peculiar office it was to take a strict account of the several genealogies, and to record the most memorable transactions that happened in the kingdom.

'Niul, the father of Gadelas, obtained all his riches and honour upon the account of his learning and exquisite art, from whom were derived, not only the streams of learning and knowledge, but a sufficient skill to adjust the pedigrees of families, and to transmit them uncorrupt to after ages.'

In the year of our Lord 1566, There was an English priest, whose name was Good; he taught a school in Limerick, and upon the strictest survey and inquiry, gives this account of the people of Ireland: "They are a people robust, and of great agility of body, of a stout and magnanimous disposition, of a sharp and warlike genius, prodigal of life, patient of labour, of cold, and of hunger; exceeding kind and hospitable to strangers, constant in their love, implacable to their enemies, easy to believe, impatient of reproach and injury.""

Stanihurst's account of them is-In labours the most patient of mankind, and seldom despairing under the greatest difficulties.'

SIR, the church of England is the eye of England. If there be a speck or two in the eye, we endeavour to take them off; but he were a strange oculist who should pull out the eye.-Lord Bacon.